This is a common question we face as financial planners. Popularity doesn’t necessarily make something a good financial decision for your personal situation. There are a few important factors to consider when determining if a Roth Conversion is for you.
1) What is your current tax bracket?
A big consideration of whether or not to convert your Traditional IRA to a Roth Ira should be dependent on your current tax circumstances. With clients having widely varying effective tax rates, it’s important to know your current tax rate and your potential tax rate should you decide to convert your IRA. All conversion proceeds from your IRA will be considered taxable dollars. When you contributed to your 401k, IRA or other qualified plan, you were given a tax deduction for your contribution. So, you never paid taxes on the money you invested. Now as you move funds out of your traditional IRA you will begin to pay taxes. If you have a tax rate of 15%, then maybe the conversion could be beneficial to you. If you have a tax rate of 25%, then maybe it won’t be. The best advice is for you to gain an understanding of the tax consequences pertinent to you.
2) What is your future tax bracket going to be?
This is much more difficult to determine. However, most people will find themselves in a lower tax bracket when they retire than their current tax bracket. This is the primary reason a person would consider not converting the Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. If you have to pay more money today than you would pay in the future, why would you want to pay the extra tax? In the words of one of my clients, “Who said, yes I’d like to pay more taxes please? Nobody Ever!” Her words, not mine.
3) What is the growth difference between my traditional IRA and potential Roth IRA after taxes?
Now that we know your current tax bracket and your potential future tax bracket, we can begin to make calculations that will determine the potential value of both decisions for the future and for today. Here is a sample scenario for you:
Kate (65) has $300,000 in her Traditional IRA which she rolled over from her former employer’s 401K plan. Kate lives a fairly simple life, has no debt and she anticipates being able to live off her social security and supplement income from her IRA as she needs it. We’ll assume she needs $20,000 of extra income every year from her IRA. This extra income is to ensure Kate can do the special things she like to do like traveling, attending trade shows, and spoiling her grandchildren.
In our current scenario, Kate is mostly in the 15% tax bracket. She is earning a return of about 6.5% on her investments and has already begun withdrawing the $20,000 from her IRA.
The results:
If Kate were to convert her entire IRA today, then she would find herself in the 33% tax bracket paying almost $90,000 in taxes to the IRS. Since Kate is only withdrawing $20,000 per year from her Traditional IRA, it probably doesn’t make sense for Kate to convert this IRA at this time. The future compounding growth of her Traditional IRA is worth more than taking the tax hit today for the potential tax savings tomorrow. Maybe the conversion makes sense if Kate had 30 years to allow her money to grow, but for today’s illustration, she’s better off leaving the money in her account.
Is the Roth Conversion a financial strategy you’ve been considering? If so, let’s talk.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a variation of the phrases “I’m trying, but he isn’t”, “I’m sticking to my budget but she’s not”, and “I’m ready to retire, but he’s not”. There are many things my spouse and I don’t agree on. As an example, I am a risk-taker and my wife is not. My wife doesn’t like to look at the budget but I do. She is perfectly fine shopping cheap and I’m not. The list can go on and on. But, one thing we do as we navigate through some of life’s most difficult challenges, is talk and come up with a plan. Marital unity is absolutely critical when making important financial decisions and also dealing with the day to day minutiae of budgeting, shopping & other daily spending decisions.

For many of us, we weren’t modeled how to manage money well as children. Worse yet, we weren’t modeled how to talk about money with our significant others. Some of us may even have searing images implanted in our brains of our parents screaming and fighting in the kitchen over money. So, it’s no surprise that many of us don’t know how to talk with our spouses about money. For that matter, some of us don’t really know how to talk to our spouses at all. If this is true, how do we begin to have dialogue with our husbands and wives that will be beneficial for the whole family.

It’s no secret to some of you reading this article that I’m going to quote the Bible. And, for some of you who don’t know that I do that…YES!!! The Bible!. 🙂 I think the first thing I will share is that if your spouse “doesn’t want to listen to you”, you should probably consider what you’ve been saying and how you’ve been saying it. Sometimes your spouse just feels too much pressure from you when it comes to accomplishing the goals you’ve set forth. Maybe you come across as a dictator. Maybe you’re an Ephesians 22-24 guy and you love these verses:

“Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything”.

But, if you’re forgetting Ephesians 5:25 that goes along with these verses, then maybe you should consider re-reading this passage.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Last time I checked, Christ’s love is the most absolutely sacrificial kind of love ever demonstrated to mankind. Are you showing your wife this kind of love when “she’s not submitting” to what you say? Just a thought…

Now, maybe your the wife saying “My husband just won’t lead. He should be taking charge of this.” I find no scripture verse that says your husband has to be perfect at everything and take the lead on every single matter that comes up in your house. As a partner in your marriage you are capable to take the lead in many areas and help manage the finances. I say finances as that is what I’m writing about today. What’s the point of all this? Using the title of a new tv drama…., THIS IS US. This is how we sometimes relate to each other. This is how we sometimes speak to each other. When it comes to goal planning, I’m quite certain God’s intention wasn’t for one person to handle everything and the other person to be completely in the dark or complacent about matters.

So, what can you do? What can you say? The answer is I have absolutely no idea! I don’t know you. I don’t know your financial situation and I don’t know exactly why “you’re trying, but your spouse isn’t”. But, I could recommend a few ideas that you might find helpful. First, we must speak kindly to each other and not blame one another when things don’t go right. When it comes to making good money decisions and being on the same page as your spouse, it’s important to have clear and peace filled dialogue. Ask your spouse questions like “what’s important to you right now about our finances?”, “where do you see us in 5 years and how do we get there together?”, “how does this purchase help us with our goal of funding education for our children?” “what do you think about talking to a financial planner?”. I had to throw that one in….;-) Kidding aside, you must find a way to communicate with your spouse about money in a way he or she understands. A couple of resources I could recommend… Find a “Financial Peace University” class in your area. Find a good counselor who can help you process some of the issues you need to address with marriage and finances. I’m partial to good Christian counseling and I can recommend a few good counselors if you’d like. Go have a talk with your Pastor. Read Randy Alcorn’s book “Money, Possessions, and Eternity”. There is so much you can do.

Most importantly, you aren’t alone. I’m writing about this topic today because it’s been a recurring theme in my practice lately. I’ve sat with couples as tears have overflowed because one spouse has plan A while the other spouse is focused on plan B. I’ve sat and heard stories of marriages on the brink of divorce because the two couldn’t agree on a financial direction. It doesn’t have to be that way. There are things you can do to make your marriage and your financial situation better! If you need help, please don’t hesitate to reach out and ask. Please share with us a story of how your marriage and finances have improved! We’d love to hear it.

When you think about successful money management, what comes to mind? Where do you receive good information? How do you know what books to read to help guide you down the right path? Most people don’t just obtain wealth out of the blue sky.If you were to ask most successful people how they obtained their money, they would tell you they worked hard, had some luck/blessing, and they read voraciously. When I first entered the financial planning business, my mentors assigned me a list of books to read to help me understand more about money and how it works. Since that time 15 years ago, I’ve come across many great financial books and I’d like to share ten books to help you make smart choices with your money. I’m sure 15 years from now, I’ll have a different list of books that every successful investor should read, but for now, please enjoy.

Disclosure: While I find these books helpful, I don’t agree with every concept illustrated in every book. On your quest for knowledge, you need to determine what works for you and your family.These book recommendations are not considered to be a solicitation of advice.

If you need help making smart choices with your money, please email me at jose@wisdominvestments.com

10) Rich Dad Poor Dad By Robert Kiyosaki:

This was the first book I read when I entered the financial planning industry. Robert Kiyosaki describes how he had two dads. He takes the time to describe each father’s financial and life philosophies and how each dad is deemed with the names Rich Dad and Poor Dad.The book does a great job of detailing financial ideas and concepts that allow Rich Dad to be rich and Poor Dad to be poor.The book would be great for the person who is paying their bills first and feels like there is nothing left to save at the end of the paycheck.

9) The 7 habits of highly effective people By Stephen Covey:

While this book isn’t necessarily about money, I believe this book gives a great blueprint of how to achieve success in your life.The 7 habits help you to obtain structure to achieve the goals you are looking to achieve in life.I have found that while the 7 habits aren’t necessarily financial principles, they can be used in almost any financial situation.

8) The Millionaire Next Door By Thomas Payne

The Millionaire Next Door is one of the best books I’ve read that smacks American Consumerism right in the face.This book details for you what a normal Millionaire looks like, what she might drive, and how he might live.With today’s images of what it looks like to be a millionaire, this book is a breath of fresh air describing how most millionaires are made and live.

7) The Investment Answer By Daniel Goldie & Gordon Murray

The Investment Answer helps give every investor an idea of what they should be looking for when they invest money. The book addresses concerns such as how to understand the markets, how to pick a financial advisor, & how to make great financial choices. We love to give this book to potential clients.Even if a client doesn’t choose to work with us, this book will help them make the best decision possible about whom they should hire.

6) How to Think Like Benjamin Graham and Invest Like Warren Buffet By Lawrence Cunningham

This again is one of my personal favorites. This book showcases some of the great ideas of Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffet.If you don’t have time to sit down and read the 725 page book Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham, then this book is for you. This book challenges some of the stereotypical types of investing methods and dives into value investing.We again like this book because it compliments some of our own investment management philosophies.

“Wisdom Investments has been helping individuals and businesses make smart choices with their money since 1999”.

5) Values-Based Financial Planning By Bill Bachrach

This book describes the need for financial planning according to your unique values. Investing according to your unique values allows you to determine what is really most important to you when planning for your future. We all have values that are important to us. Why would you not consider those values when you are planning for your most important goals in life?

4) Total Money Makeover By Dave Ramsey

Dave’s advice focuses on living a life free of debt and investing money for the long-term. Many people focus on utilizing debt to achieve the things they want in life.Dave’s radical concepts of approaching all situations without debt can help the individual who has become too reliant on credit cards and bank loans.

“The Five principles to transform your relationship with money” will help you understand the love affair you’ve had with money and how to change it.Some people tend to focus on attaining more of this and more of that. This book suggests that if we are constantly seeking for more when it comes to money, we may need to start doing some things differently.

2) The Treasure Principle By Randy Alcorn

Where is your treasure? What kind of riches are you seeking? We’ve all heard it is better to give than to receive. The Treasure Principle seeks to show you how to experience joy through the giving of your money.Maybe many of us haven’t thought about giving as being a gift, but some people have an inborn desire to give of their resources. How much better could your life be if you decided to “Discover The Secret of Joyful Giving”.

1) Master Your Money By Ron Blue

Ron’s book shows individuals how to manage their money with a Biblical perspective in mind. Many of us who believe in the teachings of Christ already know the Bible has a great blueprint for money management. Master Your Money looks to describe those concepts in detail while giving real world applications and scenarios to help you understand how you can Master Your Money.

I hope you make time to read some of these great books about money.

“My people are dying because of lack of knowledge”.

If you need help making smart choices with your money, please give us a call.

This question is power packed with many different potential answers. At it’s core, this question is about risk. This question is “me” focused. The safest place for me to invest might not be the safest place for you to invest. What does the word safe mean? Does it mean I don’t want to lose any money today? Or, does it mean “I want my future to be safe”. At the root of most investor questions is some type of psychological unknown the client wants light shed upon. Since this question can cover both product and asset allocation, I will cover product for the moment.

In the financial world, there are many types of products you can purchase or invest in to achieve your goals. All of those products can be put into 5 buckets; stocks, bonds, cash, real estate & commodities.

The first product you can buy is an individual stock. Stocks represent ownership in a company and the return you receive is dependent upon the profit of the company you purchased. If you buy stock in Microsoft, then you are an owner of Microsoft. If Microsoft goes out of business, you lose all of the money you invested in Microsoft. Out of the five buckets, of course a stock would fall into the Stock bucket.

Next you can buy a bond. With bonds you are simply loaning your money to the government or to a corporation and they pay you interest in return. With bonds, if the company goes out of business, you are at least higher on the priority list to get money back over other investors. However, when investing in an individual bond, you still run the risk of losing money. The individual bond goes into the bond bucket.

Savings Accounts: Savings accounts are a cash bucket product and are offered by banks, credit unions and savings & loan institutions. Savings accounts offer a high amount of liquidity. If you need your money withdrawn from a savings account, you are able to walk into the bank or go online and withdraw your money. Due to the high liquidity factor, savings accounts won’t pay you much interest. To see a few available rates for savings accounts, click here.

Money market mutual funds are similar to savings accounts, but the value of money market mutual funds can fluctuate. The price of the money market is targeted for $1, but moves slightly throughout the trading day. Money markets are pools of money brought together by fund companies for the benefit of the account holders to try and achieve a return slightly higher than that of a savings account. A money market account offers liquidity, however you may have to wait a couple of days for money to transfer from your brokerage account to your bank account. Typically for our clients, the transfer is next day. The money market account goes into the cash bucket.

CD’s might be a bit trickier for most people. To many a cd is considered cash. However, if you look back at the definition of a bond, you will see the cd is similar. With a cd, you are loaning your money to the bank, the bank pays you interest, and when your cd expires you get your funds back. The only real difference between the bond and the cd is the cd is guaranteed. In most cases, the cd is FDIC insured. Wisdom Investments would categorize the cd to go into the bond bucket.

Next we have mutual funds. Mutual funds can be a bit tricky as there are many different types of mutual funds. For simplicity sake I will categorize the bond funds into four types: stock funds, bond funds, specialty funds & asset allocation funds. Stock funds would go into the stock bucket, bond funds would go into the bond bucket and allocation funds would hit all of the buckets. The specialty bonds would be focused on the commodities and Real Estate buckets. With most mutual fund portfolios you will have different types of funds that allow you to broadly diversify your money across the multiple markets available to you. With a mutual fund portfolio, you purchase multiple different types of funds and these funds have underlying securities that make up the value of the mutual fund. For example, if you have a large cap blend fund in your portfolio, you are investing in many different large companies like Microsoft, Coca Cola, & Google. When you invest in a bond fund, you are buying a portfolio of bonds that might include treasury bonds, municipal bonds, & corporate bonds. Within the mutual fund space you can also buy REITS which allows you to invest in real estate and you can buy commodity funds that allow you to invest in the commodities market. Exchange traded funds are similar to mutual funds but offer a lower cost since they are not professionally managed.

Fixed annuities are put together by insurance companies utilizing a portfolio of bonds. The insurance company buys bonds using your money and pays you a fixed return far below what they expect to yield on the bond portfolio. The trick is the insurance company guarantees your return while they bear the risk of the bond portfolio. In today’s market fixed annuities do not typically pay a high enough interest rate to warrant the length of time you will commit to the product. Fixed annuities are also a great way to achieve tax deferral and can be helpful in estate planning. Fixed annuities are part of the bond bucket.

Variable annuities are annuities that have an underlying portfolio typically consisting of mutual funds. The variable annuity company charges the clients for death benefits and guarantees while the client has some peace of mind with their investment. In my view, most variable annuities are too expensive and unnecessary for most clients. If a variable annuity is needed, it’s typically to help transfer a client out of an overpriced annuity that was purchased in the past. These products do offer a death benefit which guarantees a beneficiary would not receive less than a specified amount, but you pay for this feature. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’ve seen clients paying almost 4% per year for one of these products! In the investment industry, there is a debate going on as to whether or not a portfolio can be sustained while distributing 4% of the portfolio every year. Imagine trying to withdraw 4% and pay 4% per year…..

At Wisdom Investments, we take a managed mutual fund approach utilizing a balance of conventional and academic based investment strategies. We believe having a diversified, low-cost, & changeable portfolio is in most investors best interests. The safest place for you to invest is the product with the risk tolerance that helps you strive towards accomplishing your goals. If you’d like to learn more about how we help you “Make Smart Decisions With Your Money”, please call us at 847-290-0753 or email me at jose@wisdominvestments.com.

Today, President Trump signed two executive orders that will significantly impact the current state of financial regulation in our country. Due to the financial crisis that took place between 2008 and 2010, massive regulations contained within the Dodd-Frank Act were imposed on the financial system. These regulations were designed to help protect the public from potential abuse by financial institutions. While we believe some measures of the regulations were well intended, we believe there have been some unintended negative consequences.The financial industry was already a heavily regulated industry prior to Dodd-Frank.

The second executive order President Trump signed is in response to the Department of Labor’s Fiduciary rule, that was scheduled to be effective in April of 2017.The rule states that retirement advisors must act in the best interest of their clients. This is an enhancement to the suitability rule currently in place.Under suitability, advisors are obligatedto recommend investments that are suitable, or appropriateforclients, based on the client’s income, investment knowledge and risk tolerance.Under the Fiduciary rules, financial professionals are legally obligated to put their client’s best interest’s first rather than simply finding “suitable” investments.The Fiduciary rule would have resulted in many advisors no longer being able to receive commissions on the sale of retirement products as such commissions would have been deemed to be a conflict of interest.

At Wisdom Investments, we believe in fiduciary responsibilities and many of you already know we act in a Fiduciary capacity for our clients. This executive order will delay the fiduciary rule until the current administration has the opportunity to review and amend the rule.Clearly these two executive orders send the signal that the Trump administration feels the current regulatory state is unnecessarily burdensome.These moves by President Trump areanother indication that he intends to follow through on his campaign promises. While loosening regulations will ultimately help benefit business, the executive orders will face backlash from the Democrats arguing the decrease in regulation will negatively affect middle class investors.

In summary, the status quo for investors remains the same.At Wisdom, we believe the Fiduciary standard will eventually be passedand we are supporters of the standard. We currently do business under that standard because we believe the fiduciary standard is beneficial for clients. The fiduciary proposal did have many ambiguous provisions and we are hopeful the postponement and review will provide clarity.

In the meantime, if you know someone who is upset about the postponement or just know someone who is interested in working with a firm that always puts their clients’ interests first, in a fiduciary manner, have them call us or send us their name and we will contact them. We place great value in the confidence you show in us and will do our very best to earn that continued confidence.

CONVENTIONAL INVESTING & INDEX INVESTING VS. EVIDENCE BASED INVESTING Should you utilize actively managed funds (conventional investing) or use index funds (passive strategy)? This has been a debate for quite some time. For decades, conventional investing is all we knew. Indexes on the other hand weren’t supposed to be the investment. Indexes were designed to be the measurement for conventional investing. After the indexes were created, it was discovered that most of the professionally managed funds couldn’t beat the index. What we’ve learned through years of history and study is that only about 15% of the actively managed mutual funds available have beaten the indexes. So, as an investor if you knew you had an 85% chance of making less money than your designated index, what would you choose? Yes, 15% of those mutual funds did beat the index. The problem is you had no idea before hand what mutual fund was going to beat the index and how much risk they were going to take to do that.

From this explanation, you might say “Great. Thanks. I’ll go buy that index fund now”. And, you might be ok if you did that on your own. Chances are you would be better off if you bought the index fund and held onto it than if you had invested conventionally. However index funds have their own set of problems. These are problems you don’t hear advertised due to the massive amount of inflows into index funds right now. Plus, you have billionaire investor extraordinaire Warren Buffet telling you to buy index funds. A downside of utilizing index funds are the Hidden Costs. One of the hidden costs of owning an index fund is something called “Reconstitution day”. An index fund must follow an index or else it’s not an index. If a stock is no longer part of an index, what happens? The stock is moved out of the index. What happens when a stock is performing well and has increased in size? It moves into the index. The problem is this all happens on the same day. Everyone knows it’s coming. So, what happens? The stocks being sold decrease further in value and the stocks added to the index increase in value. By the time this happens, you have lost money on both ends.

There’s a third approach. This third approach was designed by noble prize winners from the University of Chicago and is implemented through Dimensional Fund Advisors. Unfortunately, the average investor can’t walk into Dimensional funds and use this approach. But, we will gladly help you incorporate this strategy! We believe this third approach is a better option. Actually, it’s been proven to be a better investment. Rather than trying to predict what’s going to happen in the market, we embrace the market pricing. We say, “You know, most of those guys on Wall Street are pretty smart and they have way more information than we do”. So deciding that most of the analysts have it right, we move to consider expected return. We know that not all stocks are going to have the same return. The same is true in the real estate market. The value of a Beverly Hills home is going to grow faster than homes in Cleveland. Even though you know the Beverly Hills home is going to appreciate faster, you might still want that Cleveland home because it’s also going to appreciate. We may not want to own every home in Cleveland, but we know we want some of them. Translate this to stocks and you have an idea of why we think certain stocks should and shouldn’t be in our portfolio. As fund managers at DFA pick these stocks they start to discern, “is the stock too expensive?”, “is it right for the portfolio?”, “can we get the stock cheaper tomorrow”? Then by eliminating stocks that are too expensive or have appreciated too much, a basket of stocks is created for clients to invest. In addition, it’s been proven over time that value stocks outperform growth stocks with less risk. Knowing this, portfolios are created with a tilt towards Value. A quick note: 82% of Dimensional Funds have beaten their index.

This is just one of the many reasons you should choose to work with our firm. We’d love to introduce you to evidence-based investing. Email me today to learn more about how this approach can help you with your goals.

Should you trust the adviser who’s telling you what to do with your money?

Unfortunately, many should not. The sad story is that if you are like most Americans, you are easy prey for the money advice business that’s involved with over $14 trillion of Americans’ retirement savings.

Typically, people seek out professional advice about their money because they don’t have a clue about how to proceed. But investing properly is a mystery, the fine print that goes with products like annuities is overwhelming, and finding the right person to help can be just as perplexing.

Too often, Americans end up in the arms of advisers who aren’t really there to protect and help them. They are salesmen or saleswomen, not true advisers who put clients’ needs first. These brokers aren’t rewarded by their employers for steering you into top-quality investments or insurance at the lowest price. They are hired to sell, just like the guy on the car lot. And that means many will sell what’s most lucrative to them and the firms that keep them on the job — not necessarily what’s best for you.

These so-called “advisers” may have titles like “financial consultant.” They may devote time to little league, community organizations or religious institutions. They may have clients who are rich or famous. But what they often won’t tell you — unless you probe for it — is that they aren’t paid to give you the best advice. And amid the naivete of some clients, their sales behavior can be like taking candy from babies. Americans are wasting about $17 billion a year on unnecessary fees in connection with investment advice that isn’t aimed at their best interests, according to the government.

Faced with the prospect that millions of Americans will run out of money in retirement and become a burden on government, the U.S. government took action last year to try to take some confusion out of the advice business. The Department of Labor is imposing what’s known as the “fiduciary rule” to improve the chances that when an adviser gives money advice it’s actually untainted advice — best for you, and not a disguised sales pitch. Numerous investment and insurance firms, plus business organizations ranging from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the Insured Retirement Institute and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, sued to stop the new rule.

Those fighting the fiduciary standard claim that tightening rules around advice will lead firms to stop helping clients, especially people with little money in individual retirement accounts and workplace plans such as 401(k)s. The stakes are huge for the industry: There is about $25 trillion in U.S. retirement assets, including about $14.4 trillion in IRAs and plans such as 401(k)s, that would be subject to the fiduciary standard.

The industry’s fight continues, with U.S. Chamber President and CEO Tom Donohue noting in a recent blog post, “we are urging immediate action to undo the Department of Labor’s Fiduciary Rule.” With the Obama administration leaving office, and new Republican leadership promising less government regulation, the fight against the fiduciary rule goes into a new phase.

Fearing an overturn of the fiduciary standard, the Consumer Federation of America in the last days of the Obama administration circulated a report that takes aim at investment business lobbying efforts.

Barbara Roper and Micah Hauptman of the federation examined the websites of over a dozen brokerage firms and found that they emphasize “advice” and help “planning” for retirement. Yet the report said the lobbyists for those same firms have been fighting the fiduciary rule by claiming that they don’t promise advice and that clients know the consultant sitting across the desk from them is only a salesperson.

“Their marketing is grossly deceptive and securities and insurance regulators have an obligation to step in and bring a halt to the misrepresentation,” the report said.

As it now stands, when April arrives the new fiduciary rule will start being phased in with investment professionals having to live under tougher controls if they want to give advice on IRAs and 401(k)-type plans.

Under the fiduciary rule, brokers will have to make it clear that they are salespeople. People who give advice will have to declare themselves “fiduciaries” on paper.

But don’t take comfort in these new protections yet. First, know they aren’t in place now. So if you want to determine if you can trust an adviser now, you must ask if he or she is a fiduciary and examine their two government-required forms: ADV Forms I and II. Certain credentials — such as a certified financial planner or registered investment adviser designation — will help you spot fiduciaries. But also check out the person on BrokerCheck (www.brokercheck.finra.org) to see if your adviser or the firm has been in trouble with regulators. On the ADV form, also examine whether the person gets commissions — a business arrangement that could mean the adviser collects a fee based on what he or she sells you.

To see if your adviser has been picking solid or weak mutual funds for you, type in the name of your fund at http://www.finance.yahoo.com. Then go to “performance” for that fund and scroll to “trailing returns benchmark.” See one year, five year and 10-year performance. You want a fund that consistently has had a return at least as strong as the “category” return for more than a year.

If your adviser is picking stocks for you, ask the adviser to show you how your stock portfolio has performed compared with a benchmark like the Standard & Poor’s 500 index for large company stocks or the Russell 2000 index for smaller companies.